The 300 km Srinagar-Jammu highway, only road connecting Kashmir with rest of the world, was thrown open for traffic on Monday while as cold wave tightened its grip in Kashmir with Gulmarg recording the lowest temperature in the past five years.
The highway after remaining closed for 3 consecutive days was thrown open for traffic on Monday. Traffic Police Department officials said the highway was thrown open for traffic after the road was cleared-off snow and debris left behind by landslides at a few places. “Stranded vehicles were cleared yesterday and fresh traffic plied on the highway today,” they said adding that men and machinery on road is alert for road clearance.
The Batote-Kishtwar highway, which was also closed due to slippery road conditions at Patnitop was partially reopened for one-way traffic for Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) on Monday afternoon.
Entire Chenab Valley remained cut off from rest of the world for 3 days at a stretch, over 150 Light Motor Vehicles which were stranded on the highway were allowed to move ahead beyond Batote after that highway was partially thrown open at 12.45 pm today, but goods and commercial passenger vehicles were not allowed to move from either side of the highway.
“Although, snow has been removed and there is hardly any snowfall since last 30 hours but still 9 Km stretch of Patnitop is very slippery and extremely difficult to drive on,” said DySP traffic NH1B Aftab Ahmed.
“As a precautionary measure, we are not allowing any heavy vehicles to move towards Jammu from Batote. But, as of now, we have partially opened the road and already allowed over 150 light vehicles from Doda, Bhaderwah and Kishtwar to move from Batote onwards on NH1,” the officer added.
He said the men and the machinery of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are on the job and are trying to minimize the slip by repeatedly sprinkling the salt in shady areas, and hopefully by tomorrow Road would be thrown open for all kinds of traffic.
Meanwhile, cold wave tightened its grip further in Kashmir on Monday with ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recording minimum temperature of 12.4 degrees lowest at resort in past five years.
Meteorological Department officials said here that minimum temperatures (night) across Kashmir and Ladakh dipped by several degrees, resulting in fresh cold wave. “In coming days nights would be more cold and there would be increase in day temperature,” MET officials said adding that clear skies for next five days would add to cold wave conditions.
They said that Srinagar recorded a low of minus 2.3 degrees Celsius a drop of two degrees from the previous night’s minus 0.3 degrees Celsius. The night temperature in the city is three degrees below the normal for this part of the season, they said.
The MET officials said that Pahalgam in Anantnag also experienced the season’s lowest night temperature at minus 9.2 degrees Celsius, down six degrees from minus 3.2 degrees Celsius the previous night. Kokernag, in south Kashmir, they said was the only place where the night temperature improved slightly. The town recorded a low of minus 2.8 degrees Celsius up from yesterday’s minus 3.7 degrees Celsius, they said.
They said mercury also went down by nearly two degrees in Qazigund and settled at a low of minus 2.0 degrees Celsius while as Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 3.6 degrees Celsius.
The MET officials said that Kargil, in Ladakh region, was another place which recorded the coldest night of the season so far with a low of minus 12.2 degrees Celsius.
They Leh town registered a low of minus 11.4 degrees Celsius down over three degrees from the Sunday’s minus 8.0 degrees Celsius.
Srinagar – Jammu Highway opens for traffic, Gulmarg freezes at minus 12 .4
